Is Alphabet the best buy in the US right now?

At last week’s webinar on US investing, I ran through the investment credentials of two of the most exciting stocks in the market at the moment.

The first, Nvidia - the semiconductor giant which has a sizeable stake in the AI market and has been one of the top performers in the US in the year to date (at the time of writing shares are up 240%). I compared the company to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which also makes semiconductors but has had a far less profitable run on the stock market in recent months. Unlike Nvidia, it doesn’t have its own IP and hasn’t been working on manufacturing chips for data centres - the gateway to the fast-growing artificial intelligence market.

And then there is Garmin - best known these days for its wearable fitness devices which contributed $1.1bn of revenue in 2022, just under a quarter of overall sales. Garmin fitness revenue has risen rapidly in 2023 as the company rolls out more advanced products, but it is the diversity of its end markets which makes me excited about the stock. The company has a strong customer base in the aviation and automobile markets and is well placed to benefit from...